Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

WEDNESDAY MAY 26 2004

NOON UPDATE

Erin reports ...

Patch is progressing well

      Patch was sleeping when I (Erin) called Sherrill Veterinary Clinic yesterday afternoon. The receptionist/vet tech said that she thought Patch was progressing well. She had seen the dog put some weight on the repaired leg when they were walking him. She went to ask the doctor if Patch was ready to be picked up, but the doctor said that Patch needed to stay at least until Wednesday. Patch is in a isolated area of the clinic where he won't get too excited. Dr. Arnold was off Tuesday but will call us Wednesday (today) with an update and will let us know if Patch is ready to come home to Straydog.

      Dr. Arnold will be starting a three-year veterinary surgical residency in Tennessee in six weeks.

      Just before noon today Dr. Arnold called and said that Patch is ready to be picked up.

An injured dog named Whiskers

      Angie (the 63-year-old rescuer of dog fight losers, among other dogs) told me today that she had taken in a small terrier/poodle mix a few days ago. The guardians had not taken Whiskers to the vet after he had gotten hit by a car a few weeks earlier. Angie told the "guardians" that she would take the dog to the vet but unless these "guardians" paid for the vet expense, she was going to find a better home for the dog. The people agreed to give up the dog, refusing to pay for the medical treatment, and the little white dog named Whiskers had hip surgery yesterday (Tuesday) at City Vet Uptown. City Vet's address is: 3101 McKinney Avenue, Dallas Texas 75204. Whisker's doctor/surgeon is Dr. Cannon.

      Angie is overwhelmed with puppies right now, and she just took in another new stray. She asked if we could take in Whiskers because Whiskers will need three weeks of quiet recovery and then possible therapy for the leg if he refuses to put weight on it.

      I said that I would ask Dad (Bill Arnold) if we could fit Whiskers in. Angie said she that if she had to she would pay the vet bill (which may be around $600) out of her social security check. She will not let the dog go without treatment.

      Unless Dad says no, it looks like we're going to have two more hospital dogs. [LATER: Dad said okay, and either he or I will be the one driving to Dallas to pick up both Patch and Whiskers when they're ready.]

Yesterday's vet visit to Dr. Reeves' clinic in Tyler

    Julie

      Julie came into the clinic first to have her ear bubble drained and for the continuation of her hormone treatment. Julie's blood work should have been back along with Rudy and Toby's, so hopefully we'll find out soon how her thyroid and adrenal gland supplements are working.

    Toby and Rudy

      Toby and Rudy's blood work show the hormone readings very close to the normal range, so treatments thus far have been working great. Toby was 58 pounds today, and Rudy is back up to about 52 pounds.

    Angel

      Angel's ears are getting better. Parts of Angel's spine are more loose now after her last chiropractic treatments, but Dr. Reeves showed us that further along her back, it is still very rigid, "probably where she got hurt, like your mother noted in her medical files," he said. The doctor did another networking and chiropractic session on sweet Angel.

    Toby

      "These cases are the worst cases," Dr. Reeves said as he did the needle acupuncture on Toby. I'm hoping to ask and learn more about Toby's kind of condition at the national holistic seminar in September.

      Toby seemed to like the vibrating coat treatment (good picture of Toby to come), and the chiropractic and networking sessions.

    Bobby

      Bobby has a bad cyst on his leg. We've been wanting to bring him in to Dr. Reeves for an assessment and follow up on his ACL leg operation last summer. Bobby was too scared to walk in the office so Tina carried Bobby from the van to the table. Dr. Reeves felt bone-on-bone on Bobby's legs and wanted to see Bobby's previous x-rays. We called both Dr. Morton and the Veterinary Surgical Center to get the radiographs sent over to Dr. Reeves. Dr. McDonald, the surgeon at the Surgical Center, won't be back at work until June 1st, so we'll have to wait until then to get the x-rays that were taken after Bobby's operation last June or July.

      Dr. Reeves didn't like the looks of Bobby's condition. He shook his head and said that poor Bobby had a lot of arthritis. But, when Bobby finally walked in front of us, Dr. Reeves said that our doggie was walking better than he'd thought he would be able to! If we get more x-rays done soon, the new ones will show how much deterioration has occurred since last year.

      Dr. Reeves injected the cyst on Bobby's leg with something and told us to watch Bobby for any signs of change. He also gave us medicines for Angel, Toby and Bobby.

    Trixie

      We asked the doctor again about Trixie's ACL surgery that we need to schedule. The doctor said that he would want to put gold beads at the acupuncture points on both Trixie and Bobby. "What are the gold beads," I asked Dr. Reeves. "The gold beads act as a pain killer lying on the acupuncture points in chronic, old, arthritic conditions."

      Very interesting!

    Another stray cat

      Dr. Reeve's now has a pretty orange and white, short-haired stray cat he found with a hurt elbow. The doctor will be trying to find the cat a home. I didn't get a picture, but it was a good-looking, young cat.

    Kitten with the bad eye

      The orange kitten we showed a couple of weeks ago had surgery on his eye, and came through it fine. The people who are caring for him have become attached to him, so he does have his forever home. Thank you Sheri for offering to foster this little kitten. He's ok now and has his home!

    Rocky didn't make the trip

      Dr. Reeves asked about Rocky, of course, and we said that he was doing so very well we thought we wouldn't bring him. "Good decision," Dr. Reeves said. "We don't want to stress old Rocky-Boy out. ... He almost died," Dr. Reeves was remembering with sad eyes, very thankful things were different now. The doctor refilled our medicines for Rocky and we were all set to go. Thank you again, Dr. Reeves!

Bill reports ...

Might any of our Straydog supporters be looking for a summer job?

      We need a couple of part-time dog walker/caregivers for the summer. You have to love dogs and be big enough and strong enough to handle dogs (as our volunteers do at Adoption Day). Straydog is about one hour and 15 minutes southeast of Dallas. The jobs will pay $6 per hour and may require five or six hours of work every day out in the hot sun. Call Juana at 903-479-3497 if interested.